Sock Journal

Holiday-tastic styles are parked in the top three rows of the What’s New page, so you might have missed the return of two old favourites.

Somewhere in the tail end of 2011, we stopped carrying EG Smith’s “Leg Therapy” tights, along with their thigh highs and OTKs. Why? Well, I dug into my dusty email archives for what we were telling folks back then and unearthed this ancient scroll form letter:

And so we waited and tested, and tested some more. EG Smith made sure to send us lots of samples so we could give them thorough wears and washes to make sure the old problems (dye bleeding, surprise holes) were fixed. Once we were satisfied, we then had to wait for EG Smith to have enough stock to send us, because we knew there were a LOT of you waiting for their triumphant return.

There are places out there that specialise in the complicated world of kid-sized socks, so we leave that main focus to them. But we still want to be able to offer you awesome folks awesome socks for your awesome little footed friends (and selves!). Since this time of year has folks shopping for shoe sizes they may not normally be looking for, here are some quick tips!

Though the category says “Baby & Kids”, right now we almost have more kid’s styles than baby-sized styles. What’s the difference? And what about toddlers?! Let’s talk sizing. First off, the age of a kid sometimes has little to do with their foot size. Some kids have big paws that they’ll grow into later, some have little feet, just like in adults.

The baby and kids’ sizes we have fall in four-ish very general categories that are influenced by how our suppliers, like Sock It To Me, size their children’s socks. There are some basic inch-length differences between the umbrella sizes (“Baby”, “Toddler”, “Big Kid”, “Little Kid”) that we’ve found hold pretty true across most children’s foot sizes. I’ll be referring to Zappos’ shoe size conversion chart as I know it’s one you (and I!) use as a general reference for shoe sizes, but be sure to check the Sizing Tips for the styles you’re looking at and drop us a line if you have any questions. Let’s dive in!

Baby socks have feet around 3 inches long, unstretched, which is perfect for most newborns and folks under eighteen months. Shoe-size-wise, they’re about an Infant size 2 and smaller. These wee socks are squee-ingly adorable in their minute proportions. If you’re getting socks for somebody’s first Christmas, these styles will probably be the best match for their feet. If you want to look at just socks this size, click here (or search “Infant” and limit the results to the Baby & Kids category). The styles below are some of our favourites:

Toddler socks have feet around 4 inches long, unstretched, they also fit bigger-footed babies, though if somebody isn’t toddling, extra fabric on the end isn’t too much of a problem. When it comes to shoes, they’re around an Infant size 2.5 to about a Toddler size 5. Once folks start walking, what socks fit them (and their hilariously tiny shoes) best starts to really vary! But most folks under three should do okay in these styles. Which styles? Click here to see toddler styles (or search “Toddler” and limit the results to the Baby & Kid’s category). Here are a couple of our favourites:

Now, you may have noticed that Polar Feet’s styles with kid sizes came up in the Toddler search. This is because the smaller size is called “Toddler” and they’re slipper socks, so the extra room in the toes (as modelled by Little Dreamer Izzy, below) isn’t that big a problem.

Bigger toddler feet fit them fabulously, as the smaller end of their fit scale is a Toddler size 6. The same goes for the Hooray Hoopla “V.S.” socks, they’re a great match for bigger toddler feet. But both the Polar Feet and Hooray Hoopla socks are more properly . . .

Little kid socks, which have feet around 5 inches long, unstretched, are generally designed for folks in the 5-8 years old range, they fit at least a Toddler shoe sizes 6 through 8, but their stretch can let them fit up to a Little Kid shoe size 1 to 3, depending on style or brand. The age and shoe range starts to get a bit murky around here, because growth spurts rule the day for this age range. Be sure to look at the Sizing Tips for the styles you’re interested in, to make sure they fit the little kid you’re shopping for.

Overall, little kid socks are too big for pretty much all toddlers (though again, it all depends on the kid) and too small for middle-schooled folks. Sock It To Me calls this size “Youth” and our Dreamer Socks for little feet use the same terminology. Click here to see all the styles in this size (or search “Little Kid” and limit the results to Baby & Kids category). Don’t be confused by the adult feet you see in some thumbnails, those styles just come in three sizes, one of which is for bigger feet! Some favourites:

Big kid socks, which have feet around 6 inches long, unstretched, are generally designed for folks in the 7-12 age range, but because of the stretchiness of socks, there’s a lot of give in this size. They fit at least a Toddler shoe size 8.5 to a little kid size 11, but with their stretch, some sizes fit up to a US women’s shoe size 6!! Holy cow, guys. You can see why we tend to be general in size naming and try to put foot length in the Sizing Tips for children’s socks!

Remember, each brand or style is going to be a bit different, so be sure to look at those Sizing Tips! Sock It To Me calls this size “Junior” and our Dreamer Socks for little feet use the same terminology. Check out all the big kid options by clicking here (or search “Big Kid” and limit your results to Baby & Kids). There are some fun styles in this size range and a lot of overlap with the Little Kid styles, most of which have two sizes:

Special bonus! By clicking here, or searching “Big Kid” and limiting the results by clicking “Small Feet” under Category, you can find all the kid sizes that fit up to a US women’s shoe size 5 or 6 (depending on style and brand). How do we know they fit up that big? Because grown-up Dreamer feet have tried ‘em on! In fact, both of these styles have smaller-sized adult feet modelling them:

I’m going to try and get all the tips and tricks and hyperlinks together in one place here, so buckle in for a longer post, but bookmark it, because I think it’ll be a good source of help for this and future holiday seasons! At the verrrrry end of this post are a bunch of links, so if you’re short on time, skip down there!

Picking styles for yourself and others

Even for yourself, creating a wishlist is a fun and useful thing. If you try to leave items in your shopping cart as a way to hold onto a style, they don’t always stay in your cart! Remember, other people are shopping too and they might be quicker on the draw for that last pair. We recommend folks finish their orders in an hour to make sure everything is there.

So, if you can, encourage folks you’re shopping for to make a wishlist. We added wishlists in 2011, and they’re easy as pie to use. Just make sure you’re signed in and click that little “Add to wishlist” button!

Wait, “signed in”?! Yep, even though you can shop as a “guest” and not have an account, it can help a lot for tracking orders and making wishlists if you have one. If you have questions about your account, they’re probably answered in the Account FAQ, we do our best to keep all our info up to date and useful!

Okay, but what do you fill that tempting wishlist with? And how do you know that the styles you’re buying for someone will fit them? Does knowing their dress size help, or that they’re “slim”? Or, if you know they wear plus-size styles, then you can’t get them anything that says “one size”, right?

Nope! “One Size” and dress sizes don’t mean a thing when it comes to fitting socks and legwear!

Figuring out fit

So, if you click the drop-down box for size (the middle one, after the one you use to choose colour) and you see “One Size” is the only choice, then we sadly don’t have any other size options for this style.

Sometimes (most particularly with Leg Avenue), there will be a “One Size” and a “Plus Size” in the drop-down. This is a combination of things, based partially on what the supplier calls a size (and how it is then entered into our system) and a result of a style gaining a larger size at a later date.

But we could call One Size “fishcakes” and use the word “marabou” to mean “Plus Size” and it doesn’t really matter. Just like in clothing, sizes are different across suppliers and styles, so we do our best to make sure the Sizing Tips on each product page gives you all the information you need to know if what this particular iteration of “Plus Size” or “Small” or “fishcakes” is right for you. Even if that means we end up writing what looks like a tl;dr of info. I think the greatest example of which is the Professional Fishnet Tights with Cotton Sole.

We used to have a LOT of November birthdays. I want to say it was like 20% of our very small staff seemed to have a birthday this month, which added a lot of cake and joy into one of our busiest seasons.

One of my favourite things about Rachel is that she brings some of the most ace props when modelling socks. She’s another one of the Dreamers with an almost supernatural ability to match and complement colours across an outfit and I end up clapping my hands gleefully when I see how she’s put the socks I need to shoot to work!

Rachel’s favourites are a regular favourite for a lot of us, and for good reason. She says:

My current favorite socks are the O Dreamy Stockings. They’re warm, comfortable, and the yarns are always so beautiful. Plus they’re easy to wear with lots of different outfits due to all of the colors contained in just one sock. They’re always at the top of my OTK sock drawer.

I love that she paired the Shorty Scrunchable Warmers in Teal with these. The jewel tones of the Shorty Scrunchables is a perfect foil to the secret vividness of the dark marls of the O Dreamy in Nebula.

Stephanie knew exactly what her favourite socks were: slipper and house socks, the cosiest of them all! She says:

Most important criteria for a favorite sock: coziness. I can dig dressing up socks for daytime wear, but if it isn’t soft, squishy, and ultimately made for lounging, it will sit at the bottom of my drawer. My favorites right now are the Lumberjack Fleece Knee Highs, but basically anything from Polar Feet is great. I used to think that color didn’t factor into what socks I sported more, but based on what socks have the most wear, I suppose I like warm colors! Bonus if it is space dyed, marled, velvet, or tie dyed!

You can tell that the Lumberjack Fleece Knee Highs are a top fave because she’s worn them in well. I love how extra cozy this fleece gets as it is washed, worn and loved.

At first, Mr. Natosi couldn’t remember the name of his favourite socks, “the textured ones” he said, having the same problem most of us do when trying to remember the name of one of our over 1,000 styles. I had a guess that it was one of B.Ella’s newer cotton larger-footed midcalves and I was right! Their casual dapperness totally matches his style.

I also had to make sure to grab a snap of the arm warmers he’s wearing today, because I honestly can’t picture Mr. Natosi without them. He’s had his thumbs in almost every arm warmer style we carry!

Weather-wise, in the Portland area November stops being fall and starts being winter abruptly and wetly. The darkening skies of incoming winter storms mean grey is the perfect colour to focus on this month.

More often than not called “silver”, “charcoal”, “graphite”, “anthracite” or “slate”, grey is a wonderful neutral that stays surprisingly neutral (though some styles tend more blue or yellow). A mutable hue, it’s greatly affected by what it is next to, like these O Chevrons (and an A Chevron) show for our Dream Stockings in Grey and in Charcoal.

Grey falls into about three categories: light, medium and dark, as you can see by how I sorted out my bins of examples.

Disclaimer time! I’m not trying to define grey. If you want some poem-like lists of names for shades of grey, both Wikipedia and the Color Sorting Wiki are kind of amazing resources. I’ve done my best to accurately represent these hues in relation to each other, so you can gather a good idea of what matches and what doesn’t. There are a lot of greys from our suppliers, so I’m not going to clutter your monitor with all of them, just representative examples.

Dream Stockings and Dreamer Socks

We have a pretty lovely range of grey, if I say so myself! From light to dark, we’ve got ‘em in lots of different fibers (including the Dreamer Acrylic Slouch Socks in Silver Grey that I forgot to add here)!

Curious about us?

Sock Dreams was born in Portland Oregon in the Fall of 2000. We at Sock Dreams are a unique & quirky bunch of individuals who value diversity as much as we value comfy socks and great customer service. Our customers come in many sizes, shapes, genders, etc... and so do we.